And I don't agree with you. I took all the photos with your average digital camera of the time: http://boston.conman.org/2003/07/04/p100059.jpg http://boston.

And I don't agree with you. I took all the photos with your average digital camera of the time: http://boston.conman.org/2003/07/04/p100059.jpg http://boston.conman.org/2003/07/04/p100059.jpg http://boston.conman.org/2003/07/04/p100049.jpg http://boston.conman.org/2003/07/04/p100049.jpg http://boston.conman.org/2002/12/17/movement.02.jpg http://boston.conman.org/2002/12/17/movement.02.jpg http://boston.conman.org/2002/12/12/turnpike.3.jpg http://boston.conman.org/2002/12/12/turnpike.3.jpg http://boston.conman.org/2011/07/04 http://boston.conman.org/2011/07/04 http://boston.conman.org/2003/08/13/clouds.1.jpg http://boston.conman.org/2003/08/13/clouds.1.jpg It's less the equipment (although nice equipment certainly makes it easier---I found it vastly easier to take pictures of lightening with a 35mm camera than a digital one, but it's not impossible as you can see) and more what you do with what you have. I majored in Computer Science, but I did take two semesters of photography in college (this was back in the early 90s, so no digital cameras). The first semester was all about the technical aspects of photography, the relationship between aperture, shutter speed and film speed, along with guidelines on how to compose the shots (The Rule of Thirds, etc.). While some of the stuff I learned there is no longer applicable (such as developing film and photographs), much of it still is (aperture, shutter speed, the simulated film speed, composure). And one other thing---the first semester he had us use just about every feature of our cameras. And that's something I still do to this day---whenever I get a new digital camera, I play around with all the settings, and take notes of what settings were in play for what pictures. That way, I can concentrate on getting the shot. And yes, playing around with night shots on a digital camera allowed me to shoot fireworks.